Monday, August 10, 2015

Imperial German Africa

A colonial Askari company ready to march in German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika), 1914-1918.

A member of the German Schutztruppe in East Africa, more commonly
referred to as askaris, pictured holding a German flag. The colonial force for
German East Africa was established by an act of the Reichstag on 22 March 1891.

Within a matter of days of the loss of the SMS Königsberg, the
cruiser's crew was back on board removing the ten Krupp guns and ammunition,
together with any other useful items. In all there were eight 10.5cm guns and
two smaller 8.8cm guns. The guns were taken to Dar es Salaam - during which
journey this image was taken - where they were fitted with carriages and went
on to see action against the Allies in East Africa over the next two years.

The con­flict which began as the Great European War rapidly
spread around the globe to become a world-wide con­flagration. Africa, East and
West, the Middle and Far East, all became theatres of war. In Europe itself, it
was not just the Western Front that experienced the horrors of modern warfare,
with bitter fighting taking place in Italy and Salonika. The confl­ict of 1914-
1918 was indeed a world war.

The uni­fied state of Germany had only been in existence for
forty-three years when war broke out in 1914. Like so many of the European
nations, this new Germany sought the prestige of an empire and quickly began to
acquire territory in Africa. In 1884 Germany seized Togoland and part of Ghana
to form the West African Togoland Protectorate (Schutzgebiet Togo). At the same
time as the Germans took control of Togoland, they also took control of parts
of Nigeria, Gabon, the Congo and Cameroon, which became the Protectorate of
Kamerun. When war was declared in 1914 Britain immediately planned to seize
these colonies.

The outbreak of war left the Togoland Protectorate
unprepared, with less than 700 men, mostly natives, to defend the territory.
Consequently, British and French troops occupied the Protectorate on 7 August
1914, without opposition.

It was a different matter in Kamerun where the 1,855 German
Schutztruppen were supplemented by around 6,000 locally-raised troops. On 8
August, a mounted detachment from the West African Frontier Force from Kano in
northern Nigeria set out towards Kamerun; at the same time, French troops moved
from French Equatorial Africa. This British force crossed the border into
German territory on 25 August. Later that day it came into contact with German
troops at the border station at Tepe on the Benue River. After the skirmish,
which involved ­ fierce ­ fighting, the enemy forces withdrew and the British
occupied the station. Few casualties were suffered by either side.

More ­fighting, and more battles, followed and it was not
until 1916 that the Allied forces ­finally defeated the Germans. The conflict
in Kamerun cost France and Britain almost 2,000 men.

The ­fighting in East Africa was on a far greater scale.
Around a quarter of a million Allied troops served in the East African theatre,
incurring some 10,000 casualties. The Allies employed approximately 600,000
bearers throughout the course of the campaign and it has been estimated that
the ­fighting cost the lives of 365,000 civilians.

Britain assumed that German East Africa would fall easily
into their hands, attacking German outposts near Lake Victoria on 5 August
1914. Three days later, British warships bombarded Dar es Salaam from the sea.
The Germans responded, with General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck leading an
invasion of British East Africa.

Von Lettow's early success prompted the Allies to mount a
large-scale invasion of the German territory. Two Indian Expeditionary Forces
(classi­fied as B and C, as the ­first Indian Expeditionary Force was sent to
the Western Front), totalling 12,000 men, were assembled and despatched to East
Africa. At the battles of Tanga and Kilamanjaro the two Expeditionary Forces
were defeated by the numerically inferior German Army, resulting in what has
been described as amongst "the most notable failures in British military
history".

The naval war in East Africa also saw the German light
cruiser SMS Königsberg sink the cruiser HMS Pegasus before the German ship was
destroyed by warships of the British Cape squadron.

Fighting even took place on Lake Tanganyika itself. It was
the story that inspired the Humphrey Bogart ­ lm The African Queen; two British
gunboats were dragged overland halfway across Africa in 1915 to oppose German
vessels on Lake Tanganyika in 1915.

Greater numbers of Allied troops were despatched to East
Africa to try and end German resistance. Forces from South Africa and Rhodesia,
led by General Smuts and including Belgian troops from the Belgian Congo,
joined the Indian forces. Von Lettow continued to be successful, achieving a
remarkable victory at the Battle of Mahiwa in October 1917, inflicting almost
3,000 casualties on a combined South African and Nigerian force for the loss of
only around 500 men. When the First World War came to an end, von Lettow
remained undefeated.

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TOGOLAND

As formidable as Germany's European-based army was, its
ability to defend most of its colonial possessions was limited. The British
planned to capture all of the German colonies throughout the world, ostensibly
with the objectives of preventing German warships from gaining access to ports
and of protecting Allied colonies from German aggression, but also of reaping
the rewards of imperial expansion at the expense of Germany. In Africa, German
colonies included Togoland, Cameroons, and German Southwest Africa on the
continent's west coast, and German East Africa on the east.

On August 7, three days after England declared war, four
companies of British-led native troops from the Gold Coast (Ghana) and a unit
of French-led native troops from Dahomey (Benin) invaded Togoland on their own
initiative. After 20 days of sporadic combat, German colonial officials
surrendered the colony. The immediate dividend of this victory was the capture
of wireless (radio) stations that regulated the operation of German surface
vessels raiding in African waters.

CAMEROONS

A combination of French, British, and Belgian colonial
troops invaded Cameroons on August 20, 1914, from the south, the east, and the
northwest. By sea, they also attacked in the west. German resistance was more
formidable than it had been in Togoland. The German Cameroonian Army was a
small but capable force of 12 companies. It withdrew to a stronghold at Mora
and held out there against repeated attacks through February 18, 1916. With its
defeat, Cameroons fell to the Allies.

SOUTH AFRICA

British regulars were withdrawn from South Africa for
western front duty on August 10, 1914. To take their place, the white civilian
residents of South Africa formed four irregular units and invaded German South
West Africa (Namibia), beginning in September 1914. The British irregulars
enjoyed a superiority of numbers that enabled them to gain control of all major
ports; however, invasion of the interior was delayed by an uprising of pro-
German South Africans, who had fought against the British during the Second
(Great) BOER WAR (1899- 1902). It was not until January 1915, by which time the
ranks of the British irregulars had grown to 50,000, that an offensive was
launched to put down the rebellion. It was quelled by February-except in
Cameroons, where many Germans continued to fight a guerrilla war of sporadic
skirmishes. The Germans in South Africa surrendered on July 9, 1915.

GERMAN EAST AFRICA

Territory consisting of present-day Rwanda, Burundi, and
continental Tanzania constituted German East Africa. In contrast to Germany's
other colonial holdings, it was defended not only ably but also with genius and
determination, by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964). This officer possessed
great skill in guerrilla warfare and commanded a force of askaris, superb
European-trained native African troops.

Lieutenant Colonel Lettow-Vorbeck was dispatched to German
East Africa early in 1914. With limited supplies and a small army equipped with
outmoded weapons, Lettow- Vorbeck nevertheless resolved to strike preemptively.
As soon as war was declared in Europe, he staged a series of raids against the
British railway in Kenya. Next, he attempted to capture Mombasa. Although he
was driven back by September 1914, he successfully defended against a British
amphibious attack on the port town of Tanga in northeastern Tanzania (then
called Tanganyika) during November 2-3, 1914. Lettow-Vorbeck inflicted heavy
losses on the British and also captured a large cache of badly needed arms and
ammunition. He forced the British, themselves poorly supplied, into a defensive
posture, which tied up a disproportionate number of men. Even after the Royal
Navy sank in the Rufiji-River Delta the German cruiser Königsberg-the vessel on
which Lettow- Vorbeck depended heavily for support-the German commander refused
to give up. He put his men to work salvaging most of the stricken vessel's guns
and even commandeered the Königsberg's crew as land troops.

To deal with Lettow-Vorbeck, the British put a large force
of British and colonial troops under the command of South African general Jan
Christian Smuts (1870-1950). The operations of this invasion army were
coordinated with those of a Belgian invasion from the west and with those of an
independent British invasion from Nyasaland in the south. Hopelessly
outnumbered, Lettow-Vorbeck met this formidable threat with cool patience,
employing delaying tactics to keep the invaders exposed to the merciless
jungle. He made an ally of a hostile climate and terrain; in the end, tropical
diseases caused far more Allied casualties than German bullets.
Lettow-Vorbeck's askaris were accustomed to the climate and therefore less
vulnerable to regional disease.

Their losses notwithstanding, the British continued to pour
men and resources into the invasion. Lettow- Vorbeck slowly yielded to the
advance, ensuring that the invaders paid dearly for every mile they claimed. At
frequent intervals, he turned on his pursuers with surprise counterattacks
carried out with lightning speed. At Mahiwa, during October 15-18, 1917,
although outnumbered four to one, he inflicted 1,500 casualties on the British,
sustaining no more than 100 himself. Nevertheless, it was clear to
Lettow-Vorbeck that the superior numbers of the British would ultimately drive
him out of German East Africa. He decided not to make a useless stand in
defense of a lost cause but instead invaded the Portuguese colony of Mozambique
in December 1917. By looting Portuguese garrisons, Lettow-Vorbeck was able to
supply his 4,000-man army sufficiently to enable him to raid as far south as
Quelimane on the coast during July 1-3, 1918. Here, he turned back north and
reentered German East Africa during September and October. By this time the war
was all but over in Europe, but Lettow-Vorbeck, out of communication and
isolated, had no knowledge of the fate of his countrymen on the western front.
He launched an invasion of British-held Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and took the
principal city of Kasama (in modern Zambia) on November 13, 1918-fully two days
after the Armistice had officially ended the war.

After taking Kasama, Lettow-Vorbeck began to hear and heed
rumors of the German surrender in Europe. He opened negotiations with the
British, and on November 23, 1918, Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered his undefeated
army at Abercorn (Mbala, Zambia). His was the last German force to lay down its
arms in World War I. On the day of his surrender, Lettow-Vorbeck's entire army
consisted of 155 Europeans, 1,168 African askari troops, and 3,000 other
Africans.

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About Me

Mitch Williamson is a technical writer with an
interest in military and naval affairs. He has published articles in
Cross & Cockade International and Wartime magazines. He was
research associate for the Bio-history Cross in the Sky, a book about
Charles 'Moth' Eaton's career, in collaboration with the flier's son,
Dr Charles S. Eaton. He also assisted in picture research for John
Burton's Fortnight of Infamy.
Mitch is now publishing on the WWW various specialist websites combined
with custom website design work.